Boris Johnson’s “desperate and cruel” policy to deter asylum-seekers was in disarray last night after the handful of migrants on the first deportation flight to Rwanda won a last-minute legal reprieve.
The £500,000 taxpayer-funded flight was halted minutes before it was due to take off following interventions by the European Court of Human Rights.
It came despite ministers earlier insisting the flight would go ahead no matter how few were on board.
It is understood appeals were granted by an out-of-hours ECHR judge while the migrants were on their way from a detention centre near Heathrow to an RAF base in Wiltshire from where a chartered aircraft was aleady waiting to take them to Rwanda.
With no route for the Home Office to appeal the decision, the flight was abandoned shortly before 10pm.
Home secretary Priti Patel insisted the plan will continue, saying: “Many of those removed from this flight will be placed on the next. Our legal team are reviewing every decision made on this flight and preparation for the next flight begins now.
“We will not be deterred from doing the right thing and delivering our plans.”
Earlier, lawyers for home secretary Priti Patel were forced to confirm in court that Britain would bring individuals back from Rwanda if the policy is ruled unlawful in a judicial review next month.
Ministers have previously claimed the policy would deter migrants from embarking on perilous trips by dinghy across one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, and the Rwanda flights are being publicised in Calais and other embarkation points. And Boris Johnson boasted that the policy – branded “immoral” by Church of England bishops – could see tens of thousands sent to the African country.
The Refugee Council said government claims of a deterrent effect “have already been disproven” by the numbers continuing to travel across the Channel.
“We always knew these measures would do little to stop desperate people making dangerous journeys to the UK, because they do absolutely nothing to address the reasons people come,” said chief executive Enver Solomon.
Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) head of policy Zoe Gardner told The Independent there was no evidence that the “desperate and cruel” Rwanda flights will stem the flow of boats.
“This will not make refugees disappear,” she said. “We’ve told this government time and again what would prevent perilous crossings and save lives – and that’s safe routes for people seeking sanctuary here.”
About 250 people are believed to have arrived in the UK on Tuesday, as courts in London rejected the pleas of four migrants – three Iranian men and one from Vietnam – to halt their removal.
But a 5pm injunction from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) saw an Iraqi man in his 50s taken off the deportation list just hours before he was due to board the 200-seater Boeing 767 jet at RAF Boscombe Down.
The ECHR said that medical examinations of the man, who left Iraq in April and crossed the Channel by small boat before claiming asylum on 17 May, showed signs of possible torture. Its ruling took into account the assessment of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees that asylum-seekers do not have access to “fair and efficient procedures for the determination of refugee status” in Rwanda and that no legally enforceable mechanism exists to ensure their return to the UK.
Similar injunctions were later granted for the remaining deportees until none were left.
Mr Johnson hinted that he may be ready to take the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights to ensure the continued operation of the scheme.
Asked if the controversial move was on the table, he replied: “Will it be necessary to change some laws to help us as we go along? It may very well be and all these options are under constant review.”
